Yesterday I went to a cooking course with Sarah Britton, whose blog My New Roots (Mynewroots.blogspot.nl) I have following with joy for some time. What is so great about good cooking courses such as these is that you always, always come away feeling enthused, energized and refreshed. And this was a good one as I learned fab new recipes as well as way more about ingredients such as nama shoyu (raw, unpasteurized soy sauce) so naturally I had to rush home via The Check Your Oil shop on Haarlemmerstraat (for some lemon infused olive oil and apple cider vinegar -taste their huge range of oils before you buy) and the Unlimited Delicious shop (salted caramel dark chocs) because everyone needs some chocolates now and then). I also got some raw cacao powder to make a few other recipes of Sarahs and some dehydrated strawberries and raspberries to make up some cereals. Note to self – must buy a good food dehydrator!

As soon as I put my goodies away, I made up Sarah’s raw Walnut Taco Mix – see My New Roots July 2011 and then I just got to thinking about some grains and nut combos. As it is supposed to be summer I ended up making a salad in honour of Sarah (and Samantha of Kock Productions who organized the course) and of Mama Djambo (who is making lovely chutneys and impressing me loads!) So here it is …..

Cook half a cup of quinoa, half a cup of large bulgar and half a cup of large coucous (I am really going for the grains here)

I tossed all the grains in olive oil before cooking, added a lump of ginger to the pot and simmered all of them together in water until they were softish to the bite. This is a bit lazy as naturally they should be cooked separately but it seemed to work well. Quinoa is always still a bit crunchy but most cooks agree it is done when you can see a little dot in the middle. I added some brewers yeast to the finished mix to give it a salty, stocky flavour.

1 teapoon of Mama Djamo’ s Rise & Shine Chutney or her First Wives Club Chutney – visit her website http://www.mamadjambos.nl or a favourite chutney of your own. Use a sweetish vinegar if you don’t do sugar. You can buy these at La Buena Vida on Fahrenheitstraat no. 582 in The Hague by the way.

a good half a cup of mixed herbs – mint, coriander, flat-leafed parsley, basil and I used something reddish called Bonenkruiden (herbs for beans) – please if anyone has the common name of this lovely dark red leafed herb, let me know. Use red basil to substitute.

One cup of cooked chickpeas

Mix all of these lovely ingredients together, adjust for taste – more lemon or lime maybe.

To finish, grate some raw beetroot on top (so pretty) scatter some almonds, add in an edible flower or four and you are done.

And it really is summer, so check out the organic market/farmer’s market near you and berry (sorry!) yourself in some fragrant fruits and one of Sarah’s very naughty raw chocolate brownies. Next week I am doing a smoothie course for year 4 which I am really, really looking forward to. I think we may run a competition for the best smoothie at the workshop… should be fun!

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